Keep Your Modular Home General Contractor Informed

Many customers forget to inform their modular home general contractor (GC) of important changes to their specifications and plans. A few expensive examples from my experience include adding a walk-out bay that required a full foundation; moving the fireplace or a slider to where the bulkhead was going; or reversing the orientation of the house. Serious and costly mistakes are more likely to occur with changes made later in the process. It is easy to let down your guard while catching your breath.

Forgetting to Inform Your Modular Home General Contractor of Changes

One of my customers forgot to tell their modular home general contractor that they reversed the house plan so that left was right and right was left. They had a good reason for the reversal, since they wanted the living area to receive sunlight rather than the garage. But they had not yet made that decision when they gave their three GC candidates copies of their proposed plans. Their selection of a GC was then delayed six months by several time-consuming problems with getting a building permit.
When their modular home general contractor was given the revised plans, he asked the customers if the plans had changed much. The customers said they had changed the kitchen around, but that was about it, completely forgetting they once had drawn the plan with the opposite orientation.

You would think that the GC would have looked at the plans for himself. But here’s what happened. He told his project supervisor to schedule the excavation and foundation subcontractors; they had been awarded the job many months earlier. He then went on vacation the week the work was done. The two subcontractors showed up with the old copies of the drawings they had received when bidding for the work; the GC’s supervisor showed up with none. The foundation was poured, incorrectly, with the foundation for the garage on the left rather than the right, and the foundation for the chimney and walkout bay on the right rather than the left. The lally-column pads were also spaced incorrectly. My customers discovered the mistake when they visited the site while the foundation was being backfilled. The GC blamed the customers for not telling him about the reversal, and the customers blamed the GC for not looking at the revised plans. In the end, the GC relented, as he should have. But for the remainder of the project they both suffered through a very trying relationship.

Give the Modular Home General Contractor Final Plans and Specifications

It is critical that you provide your modular home general contractor with any changes to your modular plans and specifications. Better yet, provide him with a copy of the final draft of your modular plans and specifications, and have a meeting with the GC to review them.
For more information about why you should keep your modular home general contractor informed, see Selecting a General Contractor and The General Contractor’s Responsibilities for Building a Modular Home in my book The Modular Home.